This was the opening weekend for the first fall shotgun season and man it was a weekend that I hope never happens again. I took one of my young cousins Saturday morning and while walking to the blind in a fence row of a cow pasture we see 6 big calves and 2 cows walking down the fence row away from us. So we walk to the middle of the field just to give them a little space and hope they don't go spooky on us. Well the 2 cows stop and go into the field behind us and the 6 dumb calves go stupid and paranoid and start running down the fence row. They get to the corner of the fence and realize they have no place to run and after running around in circles a few times they decide to go thru the fence. Now this is happening before the crack of dawn and the moon was bright and we could see what they were doing. After they crash thru the fence there is one calf, around 500 lbs, laying on the ground balling. It stood up, then stood on its back two legs for maybe 15 secs and fell over backwards. Then it did it again. Finally it got up and went towards the other cows. We got in the blind and I was worried to death because I figured it had put a post in its chest and was going to die.

The sun finally comes up and we hear a bunch of kee kees and yelps but never could see the birds or call them to us. When I realized the turkeys were not coming to us and done left we went to check on the calf. We looked at the fence and all around the ground where it fell backwards looking for blood and didn't see any. Now because there was a heavy frost on the ground we easily followed his tracks and found her laying on the ground and completely on her side. I didn't see any blood on her and couldn't tell that she had anything broke. So I tried to get her to atleast sit up a little since it would be better for her. I ended up getting her upright and when she tried to get up her head didn't raise and she fell back down. We left her alone and I was hoping that she wouldn't die and I wouldn't be buying a bunch of hamburger meat.

That afternoon I took a different kid back over there for some more hunting. The first thing I do when we get there is check the calf. As I am walking over to where she is I see 5 buzzards circling in the air. "Great the darn thing died" is going in my mind. I look where she is and she is not there. Oh did that make my day because I didn't have to buy a dead cow.

The kid and I get setup and I do some calling and 21 birds of a family group comes out into the field. The birds are 250 yards away and we are just watching them and hoping they get closer. While we are watching them 15 more birds come out to our right, another family group. Three birds break away from the group and get 20 yards from us. I tell the kid to take his time and shoot the one closes to us. He shoots and completely misses the bird. The hen he shot at flies over us and into the woods. Three more fly into the woods and the rest stand around out of range and walks into the woods. The boy feels bad about missing his first opportunity of killing a turkey and I tell him not to worry about it and lets get them in the woods.

We get set up in the woods and I start calling. On my left is the group 14 birds and the boss hen is answering me. To my right is the lone hen and she is answering right back also. The hen on the right gets in low spot and was able to get back with the group but I still kept calling. Finally the boss hen shows up 20 yards away clucking like crazy. I tell the boy there it is and to shoot it but from his angle he couldn't see her. After 15 mins of me and her clucking at each other she shuts up and the hunt is over while they moved to another piece of property.

This morning, I take another kid hunting but we didn't see any turkeys but got a few squirrels before church. The boy shot one squirrel and hit the backside of the squirrel. When it fell on the ground it started running away. Now the boy is 13 yrs old and I told him not to shoot it again with the shotgun but just run over there and stomp on his head. He chased that squirrel for 40 yds and at one time the squirrel jumped on his foot and freaked him out but he finally got him. I laughed so hard watching him chase that squirrel.

I was able to go by myself this afternoon and called up a family flock and got a nice young jenny. The weekend started very strange but ended very nicely.

Hey Bryan,That sounds like one hectic weekend . Glad you're not the proud owner of 500 pounds of prime beef. Aren't kids a blast ! Glad you got a bird though.How many birds can you tag in KY in the fall?Ted

Dixie Belle wrote:Hey Bryan,That sounds like one hectic weekend . Glad you're not the proud owner of 500 pounds of prime beef. Aren't kids a blast ! Glad you got a bird though.How many birds can you tag in KY in the fall?Ted

Trust me I was sweating bullets and I'm glad I don't have to eat it. We can kill a total of 4 birds but only 1 can have a beard over 3". Plus you can only kill 2 in archery season and 2 in shotgun season. The shotgun season is only 14 days total. 7 days in October and 7 days in December. The archery season is Sept. 7-Jan 18th or 20th?

I'll be in the bluegrass state with my buddy in the morning (Monday) and we'll gladly be willing to reduce your population by 4 birds in the next three days, God willing. We won't be sorting many out, we'll take what shows up with only three days to hunt. I really enjoy hunting your homeland, and have been coming down for 29 years. Next spring will be my 30th, boy have things changed. When i first started coming you hoped to work a bird or two. If licenses weren't cheap and I didn't have good company I probably wouldn't have bothered. However, your management people got em turned around and you now have an impressive flock. Your management peopple also figured out how to get a lot more money out of my pocket too. I lost track years ago, but I suppose 50+ birds have migrated to Ohio via my cooler over the years.